Multitasking

This weekend I became convinced of something that I had realized a while back…that minibus drivers in this town are masters of multitasking. They have so many things going on at one time, and yet seem to be completely in control of them all. To start with, they’re driving (yes, a necessary part of the job). Often times this accompanies smoking a cigarette out the window and/or talking on a cell phone. That’s three things, (and yes sometimes all three are ongoing) but that is just the start. When the bus leaves a starting point (like in Pendik) the drivers are also keeping track of about four other things. Money is being passed up by people in mass (I still am amazed that this honor system works so well here) so the driver is keeping track of how much he received, where they said they were going, how much change he needs to dig out while at the same time separating the coins by type. He is often handing back change and collecting the next amount at the same time, with one fare in the middle stage. They also seem to have an amazing idea of how many people they’ve crammed into their bus and will prompt more to pay with a shouted “Başka?” “Other?” if they don’t feel like they’ve received enough yet. All of this is going on while driving along the route (cigarette in hand). At the same time a driver is shouting out for additional riders, honking the horn to check and see if anyone needs to get on, and paying attention to where someone says that they need to get out. It’s amazing that they can keep it all straight. I’m in awe at these men’s ability to multitask, and even more impressed with the fact that I feel safer in one of their minibuses then I often feel in a taxi. (Perhaps that means you don’t want to hear about the taxis…) Driving a minibus in Turkey definitely requires more than the skill of just driving.

A series of unfortunate events

A series of unfortunate events. That's exactly what our trip this weekend seemed to be. Not that anything went seriously wrong, just that things didn't seem to go quite right. And really, all I'm talking about is the transportation. I expected there to be issues - Seker Bayram is one of the big holidays in Turkey (the end of Ramadan) but it wasn't too bad in terms of crowding until we were making our way home on Sunday. But the story starts early Friday morning. We got up and out before 7 in the hope that we would make it to Pendik in time for the 8:15 ferry. After waiting over 45 minutes for a minibus in front of the school we weren't holding our breath anymore. So imagine our surprise when we got to the ferry terminal and could still see the ferry. Rush, hurry....run on out....oh - the ferry just pulled away. So close, and yet so far. At least there's no real schedule for the rest of our transportation. So we waited for an hour and a half for the next ferry, at least there was no way we could be late for it! The only part of trip that worked out exactly as it should have was the bus ride from the ferry in Yalova to Bursa. No problems there. Arrive in Bursa, easily find the bus that our book said we should take into the area our hotel is in. Things are looking up, until we ride the bus directly past where we were supposed to get off. No signs made it apparent that indeed this was it. Eventually we made it back to our hotel, just a bit later then it could have been. Afterwards we chose to walk a bit more - seemed safer...or not...definitely took the long round about route. It was a bit of a trying day.

Day two: hopefully this will be better. Or not. We went up to Uludag mountain, fairly pleasant and a lovely view of the autumn leaves. Only there isn't really any way down. We start walking, get on a minibus which takes us where we are *supposed* to be able to get a minibus back to Bursa. Not so much an option. Instead we end up heading back up the mountain to the town we just walked down from. Tried to get a hotel to call a taxi for us, seemed to be a miscommunication (not so surprising with my bad Turkish), finally the doorman took care of us and we had a minibus entirely to ourselves back down. Thinking we had learned our lesson we took a dolmush back to our hotel area...better then walking in the rain. Only we end up in the rain anyways since it didn't go quite where we were expecting and dropped us a 30 minute walk from our hotel in the pouring rain. Completely soaked upon return (and we even tried to do the smart thing that time!). That is it for today!

Sunday we had to get back to campus, and while nothing really went wrong (unless you count our bus in Bursa just stopping on the side of the road for 20 minutes for no apparent reason - the driver just thumbed the wheel several times, waited, did it again, and then unexpectedly got back in and drove the bus off again. Still don't understand that one) it was just a long trip. The way there took us 4-5 hours, coming back was more like 9. Lots of traffic, a 3 hour wait for a ferry since the other ones had already sold out, a long wait in the cold for the minibus back to campus.

There's a certain sense of satisfaction in having made all these things work, but also a sens that we were definitely under a transportation curse this weekend. I just hope it doesn't last much longer!

my new record

I think I might have hit an all time high for the number of different forms of transportation I've taken in one day...Taksi, bus, funicular, tram, ferry, dolmush, train, minibus. Eight (if you count walking nine) in just two separate trips - that's pretty impressive really. My favorite? The ferry, of course. My least favorite would probably have to be the blue minibus from Pendik back to school - it gets super crowded and takes up to an hour for a trip that could be completed in less then 20 minutes...but at least it gets me back to campus. The train would come in a close second, solely because I have never ridden it without having at least one Turkish man staring at me for an extended period of time. It just makes me uncomfortable, and after a while it's really hard to ignore them and avoid making eye contact. One of those times I'm quite thankful to put my earphones on and listen to my i-pod.

Travelling Turkish Style

I spent over two hours making my way back home on public transportation today. I will say that there is something about public transportation that makes me feel like I'm really living in Turkey. Maybe it is just because I'm using the same method of transport that the natives do - one that once you get outside of the old city you don't see many foreigners on. Maybe it is because I am finally comfortable navigating myself around the 5 or so forms of public transportation that run around the city. Whatever it is, when I'm sitting sweating on a train, minibus, or dolmush I can't help but feel like I'm really in Turkey. And when I successfully tell a driver where I want to get out I know that at least I'm using some part of the Turkish I've struggled to learn and that I must be getting to know the city better since I can at least recognize where I need to go. Progress, of any form, is positive.